Especially if your fiancé was also your childhood sweetheart , your prince charming, and the handsome, rakish duke you’d built all your dreams around. Even more awful if he jilted you two weeks before your wedding and took off for Egypt. It would take a girl a long time to get over that sort of humiliation.

But what if six years later, on the eve of your next wedding, he returns and he decides he wants you back? Too bad, you say? But what if he’s as hot, handsome, and rakishly charming as ever? What if his return stirs up all the old passions you thought you’d conquered? What if you find yourself longing for the past and questioning the future? What if you have to spend a whole month at the same house party with him and your new fiancé?

Well, for Lady Beatrix Danbury, that sort of situation is more than awful. It’s impossible. It’s intolerable. It’s a nightmare. But it might also turn out to be her dream come true.

Especially if you’re a duke, and your fiancée left you for that other duke, the one who came back from Egypt just before your wedding. Humiliating, right?

But what if you managed to recover, got engaged to another girl, and then got jilted again, this time because of a notorious woman, a lot of champagne, and a moment of utter stupidity? Well, that’s beyond humiliating. That’s a scandal.

Ah, but what if you manage to put the scandal behind you and begin searching for a new bride, only to have the notorious woman who ruined everything reenter your life? What if she’s as enticing as before? What if just being near her threatens to ruin your marriage prospects and your reputation all over again? For Aidan Carr, Duke of Trathen, the unluckiest man in England when it comes to matrimony, another scandal is the worst thing he can imagine. It might also be the best thing that ever happened to him.

I'm very excited about this series. At first I wasn't a bit sad that the next book from her wasn't a new Girl-Bachelor book but Laura Lee Guhrke is the kind of author I can trust with my heart, so I'm sure this series will be awesome (also, according to Laura's site, the first book is loosely connected to the Girl-Bachelors, as we get to see the couple from An Then He Kissed Her (one of the most awesome books ever!) so that's, like, double the excitement for me!).

Really, if you haven't you need to check out her books, she writes fun but with substance and is amazing with tension between the characters, you can feel their chemistry jumping up the page.

Hello fellow blogers that came by for the book hop last week...I'm sorry I couldn't hop back to your blogs. I found myself without a compy quite suddenly and as such I couldn't carry out with the hop :( I'm so so sorry!!!

I'll try to do better next time I participate (I don't know if it'll be this week or the following, depends on compy-availability).

Currently I'm trying to catch on the rest of my blogging (no compy meant lots of free time to read).

August 29, 2010

After losing his wife and two children, Spencer Williamson swore he wouldn't be hurt again by loving and then losing the objects of his affections so, when two years down the road, he agrees to marry Olivia -the spinster sister of his best friend- he is mostly looking for a housekeeper and someone to help him run his farm.

Olivia's dream had always been to marry Spencer, she had been in love with him even before he married his first wife. For her, their marriage was the thing she wanted the most. Liv knew he was bitter but thought her love would bring him around, specially if she managed to give him more kids to love.

What she didn't know was that Spencer had no intention of having more children, or loving her.

But when, a couple of years into their marriage, Liv decides to bring her death sister's children into their home, all things begin to change, starting with Olivia herself.

The Marriage Bed is a nice enough book but I didn't love it, mostly becuase I felt there were some issues that were never really explored and there were parts that really made me wince. Other than that, it's good and entretaining and there is a lot of feeling in the book. Spencer was hard to picture as a romantic hero becuase he was so bitter and sour and his pinning for his dead wife annoyed me after a while, but Liv is a nice heorine.

August 27, 2010

Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so, what is it and why?

Well, I do use a rating system but it's quite subjective to my tastes.What I mean by that is that, my rating depends mostly on how much I enjoyed that book and how much I enjoyed it in comparision to other books by the same author or in a series. Beyond that, if you notice, most of my reviews are really possitive, because I think I just naturally gravitate toward books I know I'll like (International Shipping is just too darn expensive not to take care about the books I buy); plus, when I don't like a book at all or can't finish it I simply don't review it, and I also don't review everything I read if it was only so-so.

Anyway, I chose my rating system (Which can be viewed in detail here) mostly to group the reviews and the books in a scale. Sounds silly but I like everything well cathegorized! I'm a bit crazy when it comes to that.

August 25, 2010

Seems like yesterday that summer started! But now it's drawing to an end, and to celebrate the Back To School season I bring you my favorite Back to School Movies!! Starting with:

Loosely based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, She's the Man tells the story of Viola (Amanda Bynes) who's crushed and angry after she finds out that her school has cut the girl's soccer team and that she won't be allowed to play in the boys' team either.

Taking advantage of the fact that her twin brother Sebastian is skipping town for a few weeks, Viola decides to take Sebastian's place at Ilyria, the school Sebastian is supposed to attend. Sure, she has to pretend to be a boy but that shouldn't be much trouble, right? Except that Viola ends up sharing a room with Duke Orsino (Channing Tatum), the soccer team's captain. Duke happens to like popular girl Olivia but Olivia soon starts falling in love with Viola-as-Sebastian, while Sebastian's girlfriend Monique keeps breathing down Viola's back.

August 24, 2010

Four lives collide in Paradise one spring break, starting a story told over four months.

Going to the Caribbean for spring break wasn't exactly what sixteen year old Jenna was expecting, and she wasn't excited about going since it meant hanging out with Skye - her mom's best friends' daughter - who mostly ignored her and made her feel ugly just by being. No one is more surprised than Jenna when she meets and hooks up with gorgeous, eighteen year old Dakota one night. But she's not as surprised by what happens next...

Dakota is dealing with some stuff, his girlfriend recently died in a car crash and she happened to be in the car with some other guy, leaving Dakota to wonder how much it was his fault that Natalie was even in that car to begin with.

Skye is 'going though some stuff', she broke up with her boyfriend of two-years, and she keeps going on audition after audition, trying to get her big break into stardom and putting on a good face for her mom. She's good at acting but not so good at connecting with her real emotions.

Owen, Dakota's younger brother, likes to spend his days behind his laptop instead of running outside, something that worries his mom a great deal. Owen wishes his mom would back up a little, but maybe her babying will be the thing that finally makes him do something crazy for a change.

That summary was super hard to write!!!!! 'cause all the stories connect and play off each other. I can't say how skilled and talented Carolyn Mackler is to be able to pull it off. These four stories that interconnect and collide once and again, forming a whole.

I don't think I was even very clear on what the story was about until I began reading and it certainly surprised me in all the good ways. These four voices are so distinct, their stories completely different but linked, none the less.

This is an awesome book, and I'm sad it took me so long to get to it. Definitely, Tangled not a book to miss.

Favorite Quote: "I stared at the orange wrappers. They were extra-large condoms. Dual pleasure. My face flushed. Extra large and dual pleasure are two things I can honestly say I’ve never experienced in my life."1/2

August 23, 2010

Okay, I love me one strong heroine or a kick as friend, so here is to the ladies that make fiction awesome in no particular order:

Buffy The Vampire Slayer
I remember when Buffy first came out, my mom thought it was weird and violent but I watched anyway and became a huge fan. What is there not to love about a girl who is a regular teenager by day and a kick ass vampire killer at night? Buffy embodies the brave and the girly, she's full of sass and style and never gives up. Plus, she said one of my favorite quotes ever: "I've lost many times but no one has ever made me the victim".

DJ Schwenk - Dairy Queen
DJ, probably the hardest worker in the history of modern YA. DJ practically runs her family's dairy farm on her own. She's afraid of many things, she doesn't talk much - no one in her family does - but when she dreams, she goes for it. Again, honesty in her voice, bravery in her actions and a core of steel even if her heart is vulnerable.

Tomoyo Daidouji - Card Captor Sakura
Tomoyo is not the protagonist of Card Captor Sakura - that would be the ever adorable Sakura, whom I also love to death, but I chose Tomoyo for this list because, well, she faces most of the things Sakura does, going along with her friend's adventures and creating awesomely cute outfits for Sakura to go with the whole Magical Girl thing. But Tomoyo doesn't have any of Sakura's powers, all she got is an unshakable trust in her best friend and that gives her lots of courage. I love Tomoyo because she shows you can be sweet and nice and still kick butt, in your own quiet way.

Virginia Sherves - The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things
Virginia, the girl who fights to find her place among her thin, beautiful, dark haired family, that claims her body and stops living by the Fat-Girl Code of Conduct. I couldn't help but to love Virginia and her chutzpah. Her voice touched me in a way I can't forget and I go back to her book, time and time again, because there is something so honest about it that I just can't stay away.

Lucy, Marina & Anais (or Hikaru, Umi & Fuu) - Magic Knight Rayearth
I call them Lucy, Marina and Anais because that's what they are called in my country but whatever you wanna call them, these three girls re-defined the concept of hero for me. They are magical, the have beautiful swords and they are called to do things that push them to their limits and take big personal tolls, but they do it because it's their mission to save the magical world of Cephiro, from others and from itself.

August 22, 2010

Turns out the review of All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins was my 300 post!!! I never thought I would see the day when I started blogging!! Thanks everyone who reads this blog, you're all awesome. Hugs and cookies for those of you who follow! (88! Wow! again, never thought I would see it happen, went the first year with about 9 followers!).

August 20, 2010

Callie Grey thinks that most things in her life are going well: she loves her job as creative director of Green Mountain Media, she gets to see her crush (a.k.a her boss and five-week fling Mark) everyday, she likes living with her Grandpa and she's generally well liked in her small Vermont town. But on the morning of her 30th birthday, things go a little sour when Mark - who claimed not to be ready for commitment - tells her that he's seeing a someone and that it's fairly serious, worse, the woman in question is coming to work at the company (since her father is their new and biggest client).

Wanting to escape for a bit, Callie decides to make a run for the DMV (she had to renew her license, anyway) but ends up having a bit of a meltdown while standing in line, worse, the guy in line behind her is anything but sympathetic.

As it later turns out, the DMV-guy is Ian McFarland, the new vet in town. Ian isn't comfortable with emotion, he's a bit formal and doesn't seem to like people all that much, and he also doesn't seem to appreciate it when women start parading around his office with fake-sick animals to check him out. At first - and though she's guilty of being one of those women - Callie doesn't like Ian much, and he does have a knack for happening upon her when she's isn't at her best.

But they do strike a friendship of sorts as Callie starts to realize that all she ever wanted might not be what she truly needs in her life.

Kristan Higgins' books tend to be a hit and miss for me but I'm happy to say that All I Ever Wanted was a book I truly loved. Callie is a very likable heroine and I found her a bit more assertive than some other Higgins' heroines. She's cute and happy and strives to be that way - as a child of divorce, she sort of thinks it's up to her to make everyone happy - but she also has a backbone when it comes to her work and she's smart enough to realize that Mark manipulates her, even if it hurts and even if she does have to fight a good battle to get rid of those feelings she has had for 16 years.

Ian was a lovely hero, serious and shy but also very sensible, and he cures sick puppies and kittens for a living, ok? You gotta love a capable vet. He also has a lot of stuff to get through and deal with but he does. And even when he and Callie fight, there is a core of decency in both of them that made me not hate either of them and wish with all my heart that they made it.

Of course, there are dogs in this book! YAY!! an Irish settler called Angie (Ian's) and a Husky-mutt called Bowie (Callie's) both of them adorable!! Always a plus.

As for background characters, there are plenty and I grew to like them all. I actually liked Callie's family (I don't always like the heroine's families in Higgins' stories), specially her Grumpy Grandpa and brother Freddie, and her nieces.

Over all, a lovely, lovely read.

Favorite Quote: “I will, Alejandro, but let’s not talk about it now. I’m kind of crushing on you, and I want to soak it all in.” I sighed à la Betty Boop.

Well, I used to follow about 10, but since I started with the book blog hopping, I think it's up to, like, 25 or so. I try not to follow too many, or follow just for the sake of following, because I do try to visit the blogs I follow once or twice a week and comment and stuff.

August 18, 2010

Lily has been in love with Brody since the time she first saw him, swimming in the ocean when she had just moved to Seaview to live with her Aunt and re-connect with her human side.

With her human side, you said? Yeah! Lily happens to be mermaid, but not just any ordinary mermaid, mind you! she's a princess and the heir to her father's kingdom.

Lily, however, is currently under a bit of a deadline, for one she wants to invite recently-single Brody to the spring dance, and for another, she's only staying on land until graduation. Of course, everything in her life would be a lot easier if Quince - the annoying boy next door - would just leave her alone.

But Quince doesn't seem to like that plan, at times it seems like he lives to torment her... if only she didn't find him kind of attractive every once in a while...

Forgive My Fins is a sweet, light read and I liked both Lily and Quince - Brody was a bit vapid, sorry - however, I'm sad to say I didn't Love this one, maybe because I had such high expectations since I did love Oh.My.Gods and Goddess Boot Camp. I liked Fins but it was no love affair.

Granted, it might be my bad since I have to admit all the fish-lang was cute at first but it very quickly got on my nerves, because fishes were such a big part of my major and I sort of hated my major (and fish) after five years of dealing with it daily.

But still, the story is sweet and fluffy and Tera Lynn Childs has a great talent to bring these myths (like mermaids or gods) to life and make them likable. So, definitely read this book, you might not want to look at sushi or tuna for a while once you're done, but hey, you'll enjoy a nice story.